Mikel Arteta admitted there was 'something missing' in his Arsenal team as they squandered a two-goal lead to draw with Aston Villa and slip further behind leaders Liverpool in the title race.
The Gunners looked on course for victory after Kai Havertz doubled their lead eight minutes into the second half following Gabriel Martinelli's first-half strike.
But Villa staged a stunning comeback to halve the deficit through Youri Tielemans' header on the hour mark, before equalizing eight minutes later with an Ollie Watkins volley.
The result leaves the Gunners six points behind Arne Slot's men, who also have a game in hand. The Reds defeated Brentford earlier in the day with two Darwin Nunez goals in stoppage time.
Arteta said: 'In attack and in defence, the level we are playing is so, so, so high. But something is missing and that line is so thin and we have to find it.
'The way we are conceding goals today cannot be part of our game if we want to be at the top. Today it was clear that we conceded two goals.
'After having done everything with discipline, commitment, resilience, quality, that line is so thin, especially against them, we have been punished before and you can't do that.'
Speaking about Liverpool's late victory, Arteta said: 'There are times when they (Liverpool) have clearly succeeded. They made the subs and the subs impressed and they managed to change the game.
'For us it was the opposite, even after we got the two goals very close together. The danger was that I knew half the team could go downhill because we were physically exhausted.
'Suddenly the team found another gear and put Aston Villa in their box and started looking for the goal that we ultimately couldn't score.'
Arsenal have now dropped twelve points from their winning positions – the most since the 2019/20 season.
Havertz thought he had hit the winner with a minute left in normal time, but the goal was disallowed by VAR after replays showed the ball hit his arm from Mikel Merino's shot.
Regarding Havertz's disallowed goal, goal scorer Watkins said: 'When I see it back there (on the screen), I'm not sure. I think it turned out in our favor.
“If that was against me, I think I would be disappointed. I'm not sure from that angle, but that's what VAR is for.'
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